Yoga relieves stress, keeps students healthy

Students who walk into Cherry Merritt-Derriau's one-credit yoga class at the Student Recreational Sports Center take a deep breath. \nThey are part of growing number of people who are using yoga to relieve stress and stay healthy. Since the 1960s, when instructors from India began teaching in America, yoga has adapted through two generations to meet health and stress management needs.\nAccording to the 3,000 to 5,000 year old tradition of yoga, age has no impairment on flexibility and youth. Yoga, which derives from an ancient Sanskrit word meaning the "yolk" that connects mind and body, has been proven worldwide and even locally to counter the physical ailments of body stress, especially among the elderly.\nMerritt-Derriau, director of Deer Path Yoga Center in Bloomington and yoga instructor of SRSC and Health, Physical Education and Recreation classes, emphasizes the importance of breathing, stretching, strengthening and relaxation in teaching and learning of yoga. She teaches about 16 students who meet every week at the SRSC. \nShe leads them through warm-up, positional and cool down procedures. Recognizing the stresses of college life, she encourages her students to prepare for class early to get in the right frame of mind for yoga. \n"You want to be able to breathe out resistance in your body and life," Merritt-Derriau said to her morning SRSC class. "Keeping a balance keeps the mind objective, because it's important to see the other side of everything."\nYoga was the first co-defined sport in history, developed in India about 5,000 years ago. Since then, yoga has adapted throughout the centuries, especially in the 1960s when yoga experts from India moved to the United States to teach. Since then, yoga has been required to be taught as a system of health and stress management, in order to not cause controversy in the separation between church and state situation, according to The Associated Press.\n Merritt-Derriau said she believes yoga is an important means in strengthening than just stretching. "All positions have an affect on the cardiovascular system. You feel blissful after a yoga class because you are balanced, and the energy is flowing." \nInstructor of HPER, SRSC and Bloomington yoga classes Dan Cheeseman also encourages the importance of yoga strengthening to stressed areas, especially in aiding longer life.\n"There is a direct relationship between youth and vitality and flexibility of the spine and muscles. (Yoga) is considered one of the most efficient ways of releasing stress and toning the body."\nFrom ancient India to modern-day instructors all over the world, yoga's weight-bearing postures and range of movement have been proven beneficial among the elderly suffering from diseases such as osteoporosis, carpel tunnel syndrome and arthritis.